HTS Sharp Fret Ends

This guitar has really sharp fret ends.

This is usually a symptom of a dry guitar or dry fretboard, or you may have just refretted the guitar and need to do the intial smoothing of the fret ends.

With a dry guitar, the first step is always make sure the humidity is correct for at least 2 days and then check it again (approx 50 percent humidity is ideal - Click the link for restoring the Humidity in your Guitar).

As the guitar drys, the wood shrinks, the frets are made from Nickel Silver (a brass alloy), so these do not shrink, as the wood shrinks it exposes some of the fret ends and makes it very uncomfortable to play.

Approximate time to do a repair like this is about 1 hr.

Down the side of the neck are the ends of the Nickel Silver frets, if the wood has dried out a little, these will be incredibly sharp and uncomfortable,

On this guitar they are, so we are going to smooth them out.

Drag some steel wool over the fret ends down the length of the fretboard

If you have any sharp or exposed frets, the steel wool will catch and tear.

Having identified we have some exposed fret ends, we use a flat file and file the fret smooth with the fretboard.

Frets are now flush with the fretboard

Now the frets are flush, we need to remove any sharp edge , so again using a flat file

Place the file up to the edge of the fret and file forward and roll the file over the edge of the fret at the same time

Example, rolling the file as we are filing forward

Now do this for the whole fretboard, both sides.

Using sandpaper (I use 220 grit), smooth the wood between the frets to remove any filing marks.

Sand the whole fretboard clean

Apply some oil back to the fretboard, as fret ends are usually symptomatic of a dry guitar.

Oiled / Filed, ready to be restrung. No sharp fret end.